Method of signaling QoS information at hand-over between access networks in an IP-based core network

A method of signaling quality of service (QoS) information in response to a handover occurring from a previous communicating access network to an adjacent target access network in an Internet Protocol (IP) based mobile network environment, the method comprising:

• checking an availability of the resources in the adjacent target access network, at a mobile node;
• transmitting a resource reservation message from the mobile node to an access router of the adjacent target access network;
• performing a first authentication by checking the mobile node's authority to use the resources in the adjacent target access network;
• transmitting the resource reservation message to an IP-based core network from the access router of the adjacent target access network after the first authentication;
• performing a second authentication by checking the mobile node's authority to use resources in the core network, the first authentication and the second authentication being performed prior to a handover occurring between the access networks;
• and
• transmitting a resource reservation confirm message to the mobile node according to the result of the second authentication,
• wherein the previous communicating access network and the adjacent target access network each comprise an access network quality broker (ANQB) that manages resources of low level elements in each access network, and
• wherein the checking comprises checking the availability of the resources in the adjacent target access network by exchanging QoS resource information between the ANQBs,
• wherein the checking the availability of the resources in the adjacent target access network comprises:
• transmitting, from the mobile node to the access router of the previous communicating access network, an event object message having mobility information and a request to check the availability of the resources in the target access network;
• transmitting a resource check message (Res CHECK) to the access network quality broker (ANQB) in the previous access network from the access router of the previous communicating access network;
• transmitting a resource availability check request message (Res CHECK REQ) to an ANQB of the adjacent target access network from the ANQB in the previous communicating access network;
• and
• checking the availability of the resources in the adjacent target access network by the ANQB of the adjacent target access network.